How to Help

All Catholics have the opportunity to fulfill their baptismal responsibility for sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ through their active participation in the efforts of the four Pontifical Mission Societies — The Society for the Propagation of the Faith, the Missionary Childhood Association (MCA), the Society of St. Peter Apostle and the Missionary Union of Priests and Religious.

Three of these Societies — Propagation of the Faith, MCA and Society of St. Peter Apostle — seek prayer, sacrifice and financial support for the Church’s missionary work, and provide ongoing monetary help for the pastoral and evangelizing programs of the Church in Africa, Asia, the islands of the Pacific and remote regions of Latin America. This includes aid for the education and support of seminarians, Religious novices and lay catechists; for the work of Religious Communities in education, health care and social services; for communication and transportation needs, for disaster and emergency relief, when necessary and for the Church’s ministry to children.

The Missionary Union of Priests and Religious is a spiritual apostolate that helps deepen a missionary spirit among priests and Religious men and women, catechists and educators who in turn help animate the faithful. All can be a part of this effort, especially through prayer and through encouraging others to come to an awareness of their own role in the Church’s missionary work by virtue of their Baptism.

To help the Missions TODAY you can:

Pray daily for the Church’s missionary work – Our Father * Hail Mary * Glory Be *St. Francis Xavier, pray for us.* St. Thérèse of Lisieux, pray for us.

Offer your personal sacrifice – your pain, your loneliness, your anxiety, your sickness or sadness – in union with the sufferings of the crucified Christ for the redemption of the world.

If you are a young Catholic under the age of 14, become a member of the Missionary Childhood Association.

Encourage mission vocations through the Society of St. Peter Apostle through a donation of $700 to support the education of a mission priest for one year or $300 to support one year’s education for a male or female Religious novice.

To encourage people to have hope. To help them to live in peace. These are just two of the tasks that Father Ruben Quisver sees as priorities for his missionary service in southern Sudan. An Incarnate Word Father who comes from Argentina, he speaks also of the first things that members of his missionary community do when they arrive in any area. “Even before we build a simple hut for ourselves, we construct a small chapel,” he says. (The priest sleeps outside, camping under a tree, until that hut is built.) “In the chapel, there is community prayer,” Father Quisver explains. “We speak about the problems, and pray together.” In the chapel, he also teaches about Jesus. “Our task is to see that many people come to know Jesus who do not know Him, that they come to know about our faith in Him as well,” he observes. Responding to the needs of the people, he offers them the hope, peace and love of our Lord. “We visit the families, to console them, to encourage them,” he says. Despite the difficulties of mission service – among them those he faces in this particular African nation – the missionary must remain with the people, Father Quisver believes. “We must stay with them, serving them as our brothers and sisters, as our family,” he states.